Chapter 29
29
T he next day, Alejandro opened the door, grateful for the sight of his friends and coworkers from The Cordoba Agency. “Come on in.”
Because Reyes knew about the Hughes’ home, Alejandro had moved to a new location. He rented two adjoining rooms at a one-star hotel on the outskirts of the city, away from the glitz and glam of the main strip.
Cruz entered first with his bags, a Cuban giant at five inches over six feet. A few months ago he’d purchased a plane for the company, which allowed them to be more nimble when time was of the essence—and time was certainly of the essence in this case.
Next came Kinsey, aka Mouse, the company’s sniper. Alissa followed. She had piloted the plane from Atlanta. Her fiancé, Hossam, was right behind her. An Arab from France, he was a new employee who’d moved to Hopevale to be closer to Alissa. Raheem, their second in command and the VP of Technology, brought up the rear.
They piled their bags in a corner and then Alejandro led them through the adjacent door into the next room, where he’d shoved the desks from both rooms together to create a long work table. Getting settled would have to wait until later. They needed a plan before time ran out.
Everyone understood the gravity of the situation. Priority number one was infiltrating the compound to save Camila. The second priority was pulling together evidence to destroy Reyes’s criminal empire.
“How are you holding up?” Raheem asked, setting his computer case on one of the desks.
“I’m not. I want to rip this guy to shreds.” Alejandro’s hands bunched into fists.
“Well, I have good news. I was able to access the property plans. Javier Reyes has a ton of acreage, but the compound itself is a smaller area made up of the house, a garden shed, a detached garage, and two guest houses used for servants’ quarters.”
Everyone crowded around the computer, and Raheem pulled up the details, along with satellite imagery of the grounds. They spent the next couple of hours making plans. The short notice didn’t faze them. Cruz was a master planner and had organized numerous operations in the past, from extractions to gun fights. As seasoned operatives, they were prepared for various contingencies and had been subjected to tougher enemies that tested them physically and mentally. Javier and his men were no match for their small army.
Cruz pointed to an area outside the property as they reviewed the plans one final time. “We know they will have men guarding the front gate,” he said in accented English. “Mouse will be positioned here to take them out, which will allow the rest of us to sneak onto the property and surprise Reyes and his men. Mouse will keep watch outside for other external threats…”
He continued talking, Alejandro listening to another solid plan unfold from Cruz’s brilliant mind. Members of the team interjected with a few questions, but otherwise, the plan was set, and each of them understood their role.
They all agreed a nighttime attack was best and split up to gather supplies. Fortunately, they didn’t need much. The team had brought weapons, a drone, comms, and a Wi-Fi jamming device. Now all Alejandro needed was a few items of his own.
Cruz, Raheem, and Hossam went off together, while Alejandro, Mouse, and Alissa made a couple of stops, purchasing items which included lighters Alejandro needed to make a homemade explosive device. Their trio was the first to return to the hotel room, and he immediately went to work.
“How dependable are these?” Mouse asked from her position on the bed, elbows to knees, watching him closely. Alissa stood nearby with her arms folded across her chest.
“As dependable as the real deal,” Alejandro answered.
He was making flash bang devices. He considered himself an artist, and his medium happened to be explosives. In this case, he would create art with a disposable lighter which worked well as a diversionary tool.
“How does that thing work?” Alissa asked.
“First, I remove the flame shroud on the lighter, like this.” He pulled apart the lighter and took out the shroud. Working quietly, he also removed the striker wheel, flint, and flint spring. Finally, he twisted the spring around the flint. “When I’m ready, all I need to do is light the flint, toss it to the ground, and boom—a big flash of light will temporarily blind the unsuspecting enemy for up to ten minutes.”
He prepared several lighters and set them aside.
“Have you heard from this Reyes guy again?” Mouse asked.
Alejandro shook his head. “I don’t expect to. Right now, he probably thinks he has the upper hand. I’m counting on that, anyway. He gave me twenty-four hours, which isn’t a lot of time. I’m just worried he’s stupid enough to try to hurt Camila anyway because he’s pissed off.”
“I hope he doesn’t,” Mouse said.
“Men like Javier Reyes are unpredictable, but if he’s smart, he’ll stick to the twenty-four hour ultimatum he gave me.”
Camila woke up with a start, her heart racing uncontrollably. She looked around wildly. She was in the same place. A dark room. Last night had not been a nightmare.
She really was handcuffed to a bed at Javier Reyes’s compound. The room was stuffy and didn’t contain any other furniture, and blacked out windows kept light from entering inside. All night she had been left alone with nothing to eat or drink. When she finally drifted off to sleep, she actually thought they’d forgotten about her.
This morning a man came in and gave her eggs, fruit, and juice. She recognized him as the one from the parking lot at the ME’s office with the shoulder-length blond hair. Eating with one hand hadn’t been easy. She considered they might have poisoned the food but was so hungry she didn’t care. At least she’d die with a full stomach. He allowed her to use the adjoining bathroom and then left her alone again.
The blond returned hours later and gave her a sandwich and water. She had asked him what was going to happen to her. What did they want? Why did they have her handcuffed if the door was locked? He never answered her questions.
Her only hope was knowing Alejandro must be working on a way to rescue her from this nightmare. A nightmare of her own doing.
She had suspected something was off when Kathleen Shapiro showed up at the house, yet she had gone outside and wound up kidnapped. She mentally beat herself up. How many times had Alejandro told her to trust her instincts? If she survived, she would never doubt her instincts again.
She shifted, grimacing at the ache in her left arm, which was shackled to the bed. Anger and fear battled within her for dominance, making her heart rate skyrocket and her breathing increase.
Calm down. Calm down, Camila.
The last thing she needed to do was start hyperventilating.
She heard male voices outside the door and sat up, bracing for what was to come next. One of the men unlocked the door and entered, and light from the hall cast a beam across the floor.
“Well, well, well, I see you’re awake now.” He grinned.
She didn’t recognize him. He was new, with dark hair. The blond remained in the hall. The dark-haired man walked over and unlocked the handcuffs, and Camila immediately massaged her wrist.
“Better?” he asked.
Did he really want credit for removing handcuffs they had put on her?
“I don’t get a ‘thank you’?” he asked in a mocking tone. “Come on, we’re going for a walk.”
“Where to?” Camila asked, her voice raspy because it was the first time she’d spoken in hours.
By way of answer, he yanked her to her feet. Camila stumbled but caught herself before she fell. That would be too embarrassing to fall in front of these men.
Her captor snapped the cuffs on both her wrists behind her back. Well, that didn’t last long.
He led her outside through a side door, and she checked her surroundings. She saw nothing but bushes, dirt, and tufts of grass surrounding the property. Javier had dropped a residential dwelling in the middle of the desert, in a remote location far from the city lights. Above, stars littered the sky like scattered diamonds, and the moon’s silvery glow created shadows and spotlighted the jagged outline of the mountains in the distance. A dry, gentle breeze brushed her skin, and she heard the distant wail of a coyote’s call, which added to the feeling of being out in the wild.
She shivered. Partly from the coolness of the night and partly from wondering what they planned to do to her. This might be it. They might bury her out here, not unlike the burials in the numerous stories—real and fake—that began back when mobsters ruled the city.
The blond dragged her deeper into the darkness, using a flashlight to illuminate their path. The soft crunch of gravel beneath their feet broke through the silence, and her eyes followed the movement of some unknown creature as it darted into the brush ahead of them.
Her heart beat faster the farther they traveled from the main house. Camila glanced back, and saw the other man behind them. His face was cast in shadow, so she couldn’t read his expression.
Normally, she enjoyed the beauty and openness of the desert, but not tonight. Not at this moment, when all she could think about was what they were going to do to her. The fresh air and organic scent of the earth and sagebrush were lost as her imagination went in a negative direction. She imagined them forcing her to her knees and executing her with a bullet to the back of the head.
She and the men climbed over a mound of sand and down the other side. They stopped in front of something out of her worst nightmare.
A hole. Approximately four feet deep. Beside the hole was an open wooden box.
Terror slithered up her esophagus, and she turned wild eyes to the blond. “You don’t have to do this. Killing me will solve nothing, and you’ll have a murder on your hands.”
The man smiled. “We’re not going to kill you.”
“Then what’s the box and the hole for?”
His smile widened, and then she realized what they were about to do.
She tugged on the hand holding her arm. “No! No! Please don’t do this.”
His grip tightened and his face turned into a determined snarl. “We have a job to do, and there was one thing Mr. Reyes told us. He wants you to be alive when we put you in the box, so you can think about what you did. If you’re lucky, your boyfriend will find you. If he doesn’t…” He shrugged. “Then you have plenty of time to think about how you should have minded your own business.”
Her heart rate increased to a dizzying speed. Surely the rumors about Javier Reyes weren’t true. This couldn’t be happening. They wouldn’t be so cruel.
“ Please .” Camila hated begging.
She twisted free and took off running, but with her hands shackled behind her back, she couldn’t get much momentum. Halfway up the mound, the blond grabbed her shirt and yanked her backward. The material cut into her throat, and with a small cry, she fell on her butt and tumbled feet over her head.
Dirty and bruised, she almost burst into tears. She couldn’t, though. She had to keep fighting.
The blond approached, a furious expression on his face. “I told you?—”
She fired a kick, but he caught her foot by the ankle, and slowly shook his head. “You’re going to have a lot to think about.”
He yanked her to her feet, and one hand clamped around the back of her neck while the other pushed her toward the hole.
Camila pushed back as much as she could, digging in her heels, but he was stronger. “Please. Don’t?—”
He hit her in the back of the head. She felt stinging pain and saw a flash of light. For the second time in as many days, everything went dark.
Camila’s eyes fluttered open. Once again, she was in total darkness, groggy, and disoriented. She had a massive headache. Reaching up to touch her temple, she hit some kind of barrier.
Where am I?
Slowly, her memory came back. No. No. No.
She pressed both palms upward and encountered solid wood. Her eyes widened, but she saw nothing but black. She smelled soil.
No. No. No.
They had done as they promised. They had buried her alive!
Camila let out a terrified, blood-curdling scream.